Quantitation of neurofilament light chain protein in serum and cerebrospinal fluid from patients with multiple sclerosis using the MSD R-PLEX NfL assay

[Serum neurofilament light chains in assessing the course of multiple sclerosis]

OBJECTIVE

To study a role of serum neurofilament light chains (sNFL) in assessment of course and progression of multiple sclerosis (MS) in the population of patients with MS in the Tomsk region.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The study involved 93 patients with relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) and secondary progressive MS (SPMS) (nRRMS=75, nSPMS=18). The study was carried out in a two-stage design: the first stage was a cross-sectional study for the entire sample; the second stage was a prospective observation with two visits for patients with relapse. sNFL concentration was determined by solid-phase ELISA.

RESULTS

There was no statistically significant difference between RRMS and SPMS, and relapse and remission groups in terms of sNFL levels. Patients with a MS duration exceeding 14 years had higher rates of sNFL than those with a shorter duration (p=0.02). The subjects of the second study stage showed a decrease in sNFL from 2.05 (1.86; 2.19) pg/ml to 1.92 (1.87; 2.04) pg/ml (p=0.005), and slowdown in sNFL reduction correlated with the severity of cognitive impairment (k=0.52; p<0.05).

CONCLUSION

Dynamic monitoring of sNFL allows the evaluation of the activity of the disease, as well as making an assumption about the compensatory possibilities of subsequent recovery.